Madrid - Only four years ago Real Sociedad came close to winning their third Spanish Liga title. They stumbled, however, in the final run-in and were overtaken by Real Madrid.
The subsequent second-place finish, though, was celebrated as a massive success for a modest club, and the future looked bright under Raynald Denoueix, the French coach who had mixed local youngsters with foreign imports to excellent effect.
The contrast with the situation four years later could hardly be harsher.
The legendary San Sebastian side are now stuck in the middle of the second division, without a president or a proper board of directors.
"This must be one of the worst moments in the history of our club," former midfield general Jesus Zamora told radio station Cadena COPE on Thursday.
"It is so sad to see our great club," he added, "in such chaos."
Zamora, of course, was an integral part of the most successful Real Sociedad side ever - the team that, against all odds and without any foreign imports, pipped Real Madrid and Barcelona to the 1981 and 1982 league titles.
Zamora, who played for hosts Spain at the 1982 World Cup finals, was still around when Sociedad won their last trophy, the King's Cup in 1987 on penalties against Atletico Madrid.
The coach who guided Sociedad to that cup triumph was young Welshman John Toshack, who recommended compatriot Chris Coleman to the club board after Sociedad were relegated five months ago.
Coleman has failed to revive Sociedad, who are currently 13th in the "Segunda Division."
Two weeks ago Coleman had to apologize to club president Maria de la Pena for turning up late to a press conference. Rumours that the cause of Coleman's tardiness was a wild night out led De la Pena to open an investigation.
Subsequent events at the club have put Coleman's nightlife into the background.
On Wednesday De la Pena - the club's fourth president in six stormy years - and her entire board announced that they were resigning and that there would be presidential elections on 3 January. Until then, she would continue on a caretaker basis.
De la Pena has advised the club's 21,000 members to vote against local businessman Inaki Badiola if he presented himself as a candidate, because of his plan to accept money from a group of Chinese investors.
"An important debate has been opened," she said, "about the future of our club, and about whether the club should continue to belong to the members or to a foreign investment group."
Unlike in other European countries, there has been massive resistance in Spain against foreign takeovers of football clubs.
The only foreigner so far brave enough to buy up a Spanish club, Ukrainian-American millionaire Dimitry Piterman, was driven away from Racing Santander by angry fans and looks like he will suffer a similar fate at Alaves.
When De la Pena announced her resignation on Wednesday, Coleman's instinct was to resign.
However, she has persuaded him to also stay on until January.
All in all, a long winter of discontent seems to be in store for Real Sociedad, the fallen giants of Spanish football.
